The essay "The Fondamenta of the Incurable" is one of Joseph Brodsky’s best-known prose works, dedicated to Venice—the city that became for the author a symbol of memory, beauty, and loneliness. Written in 1989, initially in English under the title Watermark, the essay blends autobiographical recollections, philosophical reflections, and poetic sketches. Brodsky describes winter Venice—its canals, quays, light, water, and architecture—turning the city into a space for an inner dialogue between a person, time, and one’s own fate.
The work is distinguished by a special lyrical style: Brodsky’s prose is saturated with metaphors, associations, and cultural references. In the essay, Venice becomes not merely a setting, but a living image through which the themes of art, death, memory, and human freedom are revealed. "The Fondamenta of the Incurable" is considered a kind of poem in prose and one of the most subtle literary confessions of love for Venice.